Chapter 212: The Curse Seal

Shuriken crossed above the arena floor.

Both fighters opened with ordinary genin tactics, testing reactions before revealing a technique. Akadō Yoroi wore a mask over most of his face and dark lenses across his eyes. Facing the last Uchiha did not disturb his confidence.

Sasuke sent the first pair at shoulder and thigh. Yoroi turned enough to let one pass and caught the other against a kunai. His return throw targeted Sasuke's weapon hand, forcing a block that revealed the speed available on the injured side. Neither expected the first steel to end the fight. Each used it to ask a question.

Yoroi broke the exchange first.

"Fire Release: Flowing Flame."

Three streams of fire rose from the ground. They curved and intertwined as they pursued Sasuke, dividing the arena into a grid of burning lanes.

Unlike a fireball, the technique did not spend all its danger in one path. Yoroi maintained the flames and guided their advance, forcing Sasuke to move where the next curve could reach him. Heat gathered beneath the spectator rail as square after square of safe ground disappeared.

Tonbo raised an eyebrow. He did not remember Yoroi displaying Fire Release in the account of this examination he knew. The real match had already moved beyond that outline.

The cursed seal left Sasuke unable to trust conventional ninjutsu or the Sharingan. Kakashi had not yet sealed it, and any strong release of chakra awakened its pain. Sasuke had also missed the encounter with Lee that might have inspired another finishing move. Taijutsu and tools were his remaining answers.

He shifted rapidly through the flame grid. Each time he escaped one line, another curved to meet him. Heat filled the arena, and the open floor became a series of shrinking squares.

Sasuke could have answered fire with fire under ordinary conditions. Gathering that much chakra now would drive the cursed seal through his control before he knew whether his technique succeeded. He relied upon speed while the pain at his neck counted every sharp change of direction.

Sasuke endured the pulse at his neck and threw a kunai.

"Naive," Yoroi said.

He stepped aside. The weapon embedded itself in the far wall.

More shuriken followed. Yoroi drew his own and knocked them aside one after another.

Metal struck metal in a quick succession. Yoroi watched the visible weapons and treated the kunai in the wall as a miss. The wire attached to its ring lay low across the scorched floor, difficult to see through the wavering air above the flames.

"You are too weak."

Sasuke vanished from the lane before him.

Yoroi barely saw him arrive. Sasuke's fist struck the covered face and twisted it aside. The next kunai descended, then faltered for one instant as the cursed seal sent pain through Sasuke's shoulder.

Yoroi caught his wrist. Both fell into a locked struggle.

Only then did he notice the steel wire running from Sasuke to the kunai in the wall. Sasuke had used it to pull himself over the fire and turn an impossible route into the shortest approach.

"Clever. This is still your limit."

Blue chakra gathered around Yoroi's hands.

The technique did not tear chakra away in a single burst. It established a drain through contact and kept taking as long as Yoroi held him. Sasuke felt the loss spread from the captured wrist into his shoulder, each attempt to pull free providing more strength for the enemy grip.

The cursed seal throbbed again. Pain broke Sasuke's concentration, and then strength began draining from every place Yoroi touched. His arms weakened first. The older genin slowly forced him down while absorbing both stamina and chakra.

Sasuke locked his legs around Yoroi's arms. If his hands no longer possessed enough strength, his hips and legs could still break both elbows.

He crossed his ankles and began to turn. The threat was immediate: one completed rotation would force both joints past their range. Yoroi had to choose between maintaining the chakra drain and keeping his arms useful.

Yoroi released him and rolled away. Winning the contact exchange was not worth losing the limbs needed to continue it.

Sasuke gained distance.

The Flowing Flame expired without a medium or continued chakra. Black lines across the floor showed how thoroughly the technique had controlled the arena.

"I cannot let those hands touch me again," Sasuke thought.

Another burst of pain made him grunt. The mark distracted him even when he did not shape chakra, and the threat of activation denied him the techniques that might end the match quickly.

It had caused the missed strike after his wire entry and now returned whenever his breathing settled. Sasuke could not predict the intervals. A plan that depended upon precise timing might fail because the seal chose that moment to throb.

Yoroi regarded him with new caution. "The last Uchiha deserves the reputation."

In the gallery, Naruto gripped the rail.

"What is wrong with Sasuke? Why does he not use ninjutsu?"

Sakura knew. "It is the mark."

Kakashi studied the same intermittent pain. Sasuke should have performed far better against this opponent. The seal explained the difference without making it less dangerous.

Naruto had wanted to see his rival embarrassed. Watching Sasuke truly approach defeat changed the feeling. A loss caused by another genin's skill would have invited mockery; this slow weakening beneath Orochimaru's mark only made Naruto angry.

Lee looked down in confusion. "Is this the famous Uchiha genius? He seems weak."

"Do not underestimate him," Guy said. "He has a physical problem. The pain began before Yoroi touched him."

"Is he pretending to mislead later opponents?"

Neji activated his Byakugan. "His chakra changes whenever he tries to use it. Another, malevolent chakra rises from the mark and disrupts his network."

Tenten glanced at him. "How malevolent?"

Neji saw the foreign current press against Sasuke's own chakra like a second network trying to occupy the first. Its color was not what made it evil. The way it stimulated pain and offered power at the same time revealed a purpose designed to reshape the host's choices.

Lee answered with perfect innocence. "As malevolent as Neji using the Byakugan to look at girls."

"Idiot," Neji and Tenten said together.

Below, Yoroi attacked again. A kick caught Sasuke and sent him rolling across the floor. Each contact reduced the strength he had left.

Sasuke rose before Yoroi could place a palm against his chest. A second kick drove him sideways, and the older genin followed with hands open. Fighting at close range against an absorber turned every block into another route for defeat.

The restriction infuriated him. If he could not defeat a preliminary opponent, Itachi remained impossibly far away. Anger fed the seal, and the seal returned thoughts that felt stronger because they were cruel.

Yoroi formed hand signs.

"Demonic Illusion: Hellfire."

Sasuke met his dark lenses while searching for another tactic. The arena vanished.

Flames covered his body. False burns appeared upon his skin, and pain added itself to the genuine agony of the cursed seal. Sasuke screamed while Yoroi's voice reached him through the fire.

He knew an illusion had replaced the arena. Knowledge did not stop his nerves from reporting burned flesh or his lungs from expecting smoke. The uneven chakra caused by the seal made a normal release harder, and Yoroi used the delay to make humiliation part of the attack.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are nothing special."

The mark responded.

Black patterns spread from Sasuke's neck across his arms and face. One pupil contracted and turned orange; darkness consumed the white around it. The chakra Yoroi had drained seemed to return as something more violent.

The transformation answered every pressure placed upon Sasuke. Pain became strength, exhaustion receded, and the enemy who had mocked him suddenly appeared fragile. That reward was the trap. Orochimaru had built the seal so that surrendering to it felt exactly like overcoming weakness.

Sasuke rushed out of the illusion with renewed speed.

Orochimaru watched from the Sound instructor's position beneath Iori's face. The seal, hatred, and humiliation were pushing his chosen vessel toward the power offered in the forest.

Naruto saw Sasuke hesitate inside that change and could bear no more.

"Sasuke! What are you doing? Finish him!"

The shout reached him through the curse.